BRITONS do not get enough sunlight leading to deficiencies of vitamin D and a host of related illnesses, research claims.

The vitamin – linked by some with combating cancer, multiple sclerosis, asthma and Type 2 diabetes – is formed naturally in the skin when it is exposed to sunlight.

Now for the first time government health advisers are expected to recommend that everyone should increase their daily intake of vitamin D with supplements because gloomy winters fail to provide enough sunshine to maintain healthy levels throughout the year.

Sun-deprived Britons need to top up on their vitamin D artificially, according to a draft report published by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN). Until now, it was assumed that exposure to sunlight would enable most people to reach this target – but new scientific evidence suggests that is not the case in UK. The report recommends that we top up our levels of vitamin D, which is vital for maintaining healthy bones.

Links have also been drawn between vitamin D and the prevention of cancer, multiple sclerosis, asthma, and Type 2 diabetes – though these remain inconclusive. The report suggests that people between 11 and 64 should ensure they have 10 micrograms of vitamin D every day.

But the report estimates that most people get only five micrograms from their diets. Dr Adrian Martineau, an expert on vitamin D at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, said that a daily intake of 10 micrograms would “significantly improve public health in the UK”.

And he stressed that the latest advice marked a “sea change” in thinking. He said: “Before this the assumption was that adults were able to make all the vitamin D they needed from sunshine, and didn’t need to have any dietary or supplementary intake.

“The action of sunlight on the skin in the UK is highly variable depending on the time of year and the latitude – you’ll get more UVB [ultraviolet] in Brighton than in John O’Groats – and how much skin is exposed and the colour of skin.”

Nutrition experts said that most diets were not likely to provide the recommended 10 micrograms of vitamin D every day either. Helena Gibson-Moore, a scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation, said: “Given current intake levels of vitamin D from foods at less than five micrograms per day, the draft recommendation of 10 micrograms is unlikely to be achievable from these foods alone.”

She added: “Taking some exercise in the sunshine is sound advice for all.”

Professor Hilary Powers, chair of the SACN vitamin D working group, said: “It is important to remember that this vitamin D report is a draft so the recommendations may change after the consultation period.